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The Beast of Revelation 13

Countless millions of words have been
penned over the centuries as to the Beast and almost every major
political or religious power has at some time been classified
as being the Beast, the Antichrist!

The Beast we are told is:

Paganism

The Roman Empire

The Roman Catholic Church

The Protestant Church

The British Empire

The United States of America

The United Nations Organisation

Nazism

Atheistic Communism

The European Economic Community

The New World Order etc. etc.

The list is long and confusing to say
the least, but it is obviously an important issue which we must
settle if we want to escape the wrath of the Almighty God. And
so we ask, which one of these
if any
is the Beast? Before we give our answer let us make one point
clear; the Scriptures do not state in plain and simple language
who the Beast is. Nonetheless, we are given a number of vital
clues as to his identity, clues which we must bear in mind
if we are not to be taken in by every plausible theory that comes
our way. Six clues as to the Beast's identity are considered
below for the reader's guidance.

CLUE ONE He is the Lawless
One
Elsewhere in the Scriptures we are told
that this same blasphemous power, who is scheduled to arrive on
the world scene just before the return of the Messiah, is the
Lawless One, the Wicked One, the Man of Sin.
(2 Thess. 2:1-9)

He is the Lawless One because he not
only breaks God's law, but vainly imagines that he can change
it. The commandment he is particularly interested in trying
to change is the one dealing with the sacred seasons, with
TIME. This, of course, is the Sabbath commandment; for
that is the only one which deals with the element of time.
(Daniel 7:25)

He ... shall think to change times
and laws.

This first clue, in short, tells us that
the Beast is an outlaw, a blatant sinner, whose main objective
is to change the times in Yahweh's law. In other
words, he thinks he can change the Sabbath commandments; for these
are the only ones dealing with the element of time.

CLUE TWO He existed before
the vision of the Revelation was given.
Our next clue comes from the lips of
a mighty angel who plainly tells us that the Beast was in existence
before the Revelation was given, but was not alive at the
time it was given.

The beast that thou sawest was,
and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit (Rev.
17:8)

This is a vitally important clue, for
it means that when establishing his identity we will need to look
for a person or power that existed before the book of Revelation
was given (AD 96): a power 'that was.' Moreover,
that power 'was not' around at the time the prophecy
was given, but would ascend to life some time later - some
time after AD 96.

CLUE THREE He will arise from
the Bottomless Pit.
Our next clue is even more meaningful
than the first two, for it tells us where the Beast comes
from.

Rev. 17:

8 The beast that thou sawest
was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless
pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth
shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life
from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that
was, and is not, and yet is.

The fact that the Beast arises from out
of the Bottomless Pit is also seen in Revelation 11: 7:

And when they (the
Two Witnesses) shall have finished their testimony, the beast
that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against
them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.

We know from our previous study of the
abyss that it is a spirit-penitentiary of some kind where multitudes
of evil angels are imprisoned and are awaiting the day of judgement.
The Beast will come from that place, from the Bottomless Pit.

CLUE FOUR He will actually
reveal himself.

2 Thess.2:

7: For the mystery of iniquity
doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he
be taken out of the way.
8: And then shall that Wicked be
revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his
mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.

Rev.17:

8: The beast that thou sawest
was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and
go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder,
whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation
of the world, when they BEHOLD the beast that was, and
is not, and yet is.

CLUE FIVE His reign will last
for 42 months.

Rev.13:

5: And there was given unto
him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was
given unto him to continue forty and two months.

This 42 month period will coincide with
the 1260 days or three and a half years the ekklesia
of Yahweh (the church) is in
the wilderness. See Revelation 12: verses 6 and 14)
In other words,
during the Beast's 42 month reign, when he is terrorising the
world's inhabitants into serving him, the church of the Most High
will be divinely protected in the wilderness
well out of Satan's reach.

CLUE SIX He will meet his end
at the Saviour's return.
The Beast's reign, we are told, will
end at the Messiah's return. Together with the False Prophet who
deluded the world into accepting his Mark the Beast will be cast
into the lake of fire.

Rev.19:

19: And I saw the beast, and
the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to
make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army.
20: And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that
wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that
had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his
image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning
with brimstone.

This clue tells us that the Beast is
an authority who is able to marshal the military might of all
nations ( the kings of the earth and their armies) and
to lead them in battle against the returning Son of God! Bear
this vital clue in mind when trying to identify the Beast.

From these SIX meaningful clues we conclude
that it is highly unlikely that any person, religious organisation
or political party on earth today can sensibly be classified as
being the Beast of Revelation 13; for of whom could it be said:

They attempted to alter the Sabbath
Commandment in God's law.

They existed before the vision of
Revelation was given (that is before AD 96).

They were not in existence
at the time the vision was being given. (AD 96)

They ascended to life again from
out of the Bottomless Pit, that spirit penitentiary, which is
still shut anyway.

They ruled the whole world for a
period of 42 months (which is three and a half years or 1260 days)

They have the authority to organise
the military might of all nations and to wage an all-out
battle against the Son of God!

With due respect to the many opinions
about the Beast which have been voiced in the past, it is perfectly
obvious that in this present world there just does not exist any
person or power
political or ecclesiastical
which could meet even 3 of the above conditions, let alone all
6 of them.

Who then, is the Beast of Revelation
13?
From these 6 clues the Stewarton Bible
School presents the following answer. The Beast, the Antichrist,
the Lawless One, the Little Horn is a supernatural being who existed
millenniums ago and was imprisoned in the blackness of the Abyss
for crimes too grievous for our puny minds to even imagine. Though
the evil influence from his past existence still pervades human
civilisation, the Beast himself is in the Abyss at this very moment.

In Rev. 9: 11 we are plainly told that
a mighty monarch called Abaddon, the Destroyer, the
Exterminator shall arise from out of the Bottomless Pit to
terrorise mankind: that is, all except those who have accepted
the Almighty's seal. The prophecy also tells us that three
unclean spirits like frogs, the spirits of devils, motivate
the Dragon, the Beast and the false Prophet. In other words,
the Beast is an evil, unclean being like Satan the Devil and the
False Prophet. Unclean output (lies) issues from each of their
mouths.

Rev.16:

13: And I saw three unclean
spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon,
and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth
of the false prophet.

As king of the evil host which emerges
from the Bottomless Pit, Abaddon is the personification of evil,
a sadist of unspeakable depravity and he speaks with an unclean,
lying tongue!

Bearing these six clues in mind and comparing
them with the prophecy of the Abyss, it is our considered opinion
that the Beast who also rises from the Abyss, could well be Abaddon,
the Destroyer, the King of the Bottomless Pit, the Exterminator
from Sheol
the Son of Hell! Yes, the
Beast could well be Abaddon, the King of the Bottomless Pit, the
unclean spirit who teams up with Satan and the False Prophet against
Yeshua the Messiah. When the Beast rises from the Abyss at the
1st Woe, he will attract to himself the world's allegiance and
adoration
an adoration born of terror. He will then go on to be worshipped
as the Antichrist - God on earth!

2 Thess.2:

3: Let no man deceive you
by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a
falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of
perdition; 4: Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that
is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God
sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

At that time the Beast's most ardent
followers will abandon themselves to violence, sexual licence
and Devil worship, the very sins multitudes of evil angels were
imprisoned in the Abyss for in the days gone by. (Jude 7). For
three and a half years the Beast will govern the whole world,
compelling its terrified inhabitants into receiving his Mark.
At the end of that period he will organise the military might
of all nations and dare to launch an attack on Yeshua the Messiah
at his return. He will perish in the attempt and be hurled to
his doom in the Lake of Fire. (Rev. 19:19-21)

When the Antichrist visibly manifests
himself on earth and begins his three and a half year reign, he
will compel the people of all nations to bear his Mark. Acceptance
of it either in one's forehead (faith in it) or
the right hand (acting upon it) will be compulsory, and
those who refuse to receive the Mark will not be allowed to buy
and sell in the markets of the world. In the prophecy of Daniel
7 we are plainly told that the Little Horn power (the Antichrist)
will attempt to change the commandments dealing with time
(the Sabbath days in Yahweh's law) which constitute the
Sign of the God of Israel.

In other words, the Beast will attempt
to counterfeit Yahweh's signature (His Sabbath days): and in their
place he will popularise various festivals of his own choosing.
It is these substitute festivals or rest dayswhich
are scheduled to become the dreaded Mark of the Beast, the
Signature of Satan!

'And what,' you may ask, 'are
these substitute days which are to become the Mark of the Beast?'
There is only one true answer to that question and it presents
itself as the only conclusion that the foregoing facts allow.
And that one inescapable conclusion is this:

That as the true weekly Sabbath (the
day known as Saturday) and the Annual Feast Days in the sacred
calendar constitute the Sign or Signature of Yahweh the
Almighty God of Israel, then the Mark of the Beast, the signature
of the Lawless One, the one who vainly thinks that he can change
the Sabbaths in Yahweh's perfect law and replace them with festivals
of his own choice, must, by a process of simple deduction, be
the bogus rest-day of Sunday and all the other unholy festivals
of heathenism which are currently posing as the festivals of the
Almighty God. (Christmas, Easter, Whit Sunday, Ash Wednesday etc.)

Astonishing as this may sound, these
popular festivals are nothing more than the unsanctified output
of paganism. Most were kept by the heathen centuries before the
Messiah was born in Bethlehem. In the course of time they imperceptibly
inveigled their way into the Christian church and are now being
boldly proclaimed as the Lord's Day,Christ's birthday
etc. Yet, and this is an unequivocal fact, there is not a
single verse in the Holy Scriptures which even hints at their
supposed sanctity, let alone calls for their observance.

When the Antichrist rises from the Abyss
and begins his three and a half year dictatorship he will greatly
magnify these ancient heathen festivals and rank the keeping of
them as a Sign or Mark of allegiance to him. Who knows,
he may even have been instrumental in organising their observance
by the ancient pagans when he first lived; that is, centuries
before he was imprisoned in the Abyss. When the Antichrist arrives
the observance of Yahweh's Sabbaths will be banned and these bogus
pagan festivals will be raised to their ancient glory and will
again attain the dubious distinction of being the Mark of the
Beast!

Strange as it may seem, not all the inhabitants
of the earth will be deceived into receiving the Antichrist's
Mark. There will be at least two groups of believers who will
totally reject it.

They are:

The 144,000 Israelites
who will have already accepted the Almighty's Seal at the time
of the sealing.

An unspecified number of commandment-keepers
who will bear the brunt of the Beast's anger when he discovers
that he, as Satan the Dragon's agent, is unable to harm the woman
in the wilderness. (Rev. 12)

The 144,000 Israelites are a special
company of believers who are to be sealed by the Holy Spirit with
Yahweh's character, which is specified in the principles embodied
in the law. The 144,000 will not only observe God's commandments
with faultless obedience, but they will keep His weekly and annual
Sabbaths in the truest sense of the term: keep them as a sign
of the absolute sanctification which Yahweh will have by
then wrought in their lives. They are called 'Israelites,'
so obviously a large proportion of that number will be blood-born
descendants of the original children of Israel who will have accepted
Yeshua (Jesus) as their promised Messiah. Nevertheless,
among them will also be many Gentile believers who do not baulk
at the idea of being classified as Israelites;
for these souls know and live by the inspired pronouncement that
says:

And if ye be Christ's, then are
ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.(Galatians 3:29)

These commandment-keeping Gentile believers
are grafted in the Olive of Israel (Romans 11)
and are, hopefully, not barred from being numbered with the 144,000
Israelites mentioned in this prophecy. True Israelites, in
other words, are not merely the Messiah-accepting descendants
of Jacob, but believers who not only have faith in Yeshua
the Messiah (Jesus Christ), but also endeavour to keep the
laws of Yahweh the God of Israel: particularly the Sabbath and
food laws which so strikingly sets apart Israel from every other
nation on earth.

The 144,000 Israelites could well make
up the company who are symbolised by the woman in Rev. 12, but
other than this brief explanation of our view it would be infantile
of us to presume as to the particular denomination or race from
which they will come. The innumerable multitude of commandment-keepers
mentioned in Rev. 12:17 will also refuse to accept the Beast's
Mark and though many of them will be martyred for their stand,
they will all reign with the Master when he returns to earth to
begin his millennial reign. (Rev. 20:4) This company will most
certainly be made up of believers from every denomination and
race; but, perhaps, for not having accepted Yahweh's Seal at the
time of the sealing, they are not part of the wilderness group
who will be supernaturally protected during the Beast's reign.
(Rev. 12:13-17)